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When children are entering foster care or are transitioning from one home to another, they are usually given a trash bag to put their belongings in. According to the Friends of the Children’s Justice Center of East Hawaii, children are taken from their homes and placed into foster care for their immediate safety, at no fault of their own, and often remain in care until they become adults. They frequently change foster homes, and when moving, take none of their belongings, or the little that they have is placed into trash bags. Already experiencing sadness, trauma, and anxiety, children relate themselves to trash, like their belongings that are so frequently thrown into trash bags. Jade, a former foster youth, shared that it was hurtful and “it made me feel like I was the trash being carried around”. Kekoa, another former foster youth, agreed with Jade, and supports the idea of every foster child having their own duffel bag. Kekoa stated ”it’s the little things that make the biggest difference”.

Not only are these duffle bags practical, but they also convey the message that the child is valued. We plan on including a label in each of the bags with a message of hope and inspiration from former foster kids to the bag recipient.

While our Bags of Hope project has ended, we are looking to continue spreading the Aloha at our Hilo store by creating an Aloha Care Bag Ohana. This would be a group of talented sewist who would love to share their sills to become part of an ongoing group to make duffle bags, comfort pillows (travel pillows) and luggage tags to create Aloha Care Bags for foster children in East Hawaii.

Bags can be made both at home and/or in our sewing room with other members of our Aloha Care Bag Ohana.
All levels of sewing skills welcome – as long as you can sew a straight stitch and stuff a pillow, we need you!
Learn a new skill and help a foster child! You might even find a new passion in sewing duffel bags!
So what can you expect at these Aloha Care Bag Ohana meetings? We provide all materials for you to use in
your duffel bags (or other large bags) as well as pillows and tags that you’ll also be donating to the project.
We’re also looking at having Guest Bag Experts showing new and different bag designs, so not only will you
get to hone your skills with bags you already know, but you’ll also learn how to create new styles of bags and
add new sewing techniques to you repertoire.

The first meeting of the Aloha Care Bag Ohana has been scheduled for August 18, 2018 at 1PM. Please tell your friends and others who may be interested in coming to see what it’s all about!

You can also e-mail us at fabricdfw@gotfabric.com or give us a call at the Hilo store at (808) 935-1234 for more information. Thank you for helping us draw the line and say that we’re not going to let foster children feel like trash ever again.

Need a duffle bag pattern? Here’s one created by Jessie. You can download it here: Bag of Hope.

Discount Fabric Warehouse – Hilo is happy to welcome Days for Girls! We’ve opened up our classroom for this wonderful organization to have their monthly meetings.

Days for Girls Monthly Meetings

First Tuesday of Every Month starting February 06, 2018

9AM – Noon

They welcome volunteers to meet and help put together kits! Come and see what this project is all about!

What is Days for Girls? Their vision is simple:

Hygiene solutions are a little thing that becomes a big thing quickly, when millions of women and girls suddenly have what they need to stay in school, pursue opportunity, and succeed.

Days for Girls envisions a world where menstruation is no longer a source of shame and taboo. Through volunteers, through enterprises, and through public and private partnerships, Days for Girls is working to shift how women and girls see themselves and are seen by their communities. We offer girls and women with new life choices and spur narrative change, through providing sustainable hygiene solutions, health education, and income-generation opportunities.

There are a lot of things that are hard to change in the world. This isn’t one of them. Join with us, and show what’s possible when we work together on behalf of women and girls. (daysforgirls.org)

For more information on how you can help, join them for their monthly meeting or send us an e-mail at fabricdfw@gotfabric.om with the subject “Days for Girls” and we’ll pass on the message!

If you saw our Christmas 2017 sale mailer, you’d have seen that our special project this time around is a Water Bottle Sling that’s perfect for gifts or just to keep on hand for your own use. They’re easy to make and even easier to personalize! You can totally make this your own by adding embroidery, adjustable straps, or maybe even a removable strap!

We wanted you to be able to give this project a go at any time of the year, so we’re offering this project sheet here on our website! Feel free to download it or forward the page to a friend!

If you give this project a try, we’d love to see it! Send us your photos to fabricdfw@gotfabric.com or post them on our FB page!

Did you know that we have an online division? If you’ve never visited before, GotFabric (http://www.gotfabric.com) is where anyone can go and view a select portion of our Discount Fabric Warehouse inventory, purchase online, and have it sent straight to their home! The site is often popular with vacation visitors who need more Hawaiian print before they can make it back to Hawaii.

In the past, we’ve treated Hawaii orders just like any other orders that come in – shipping is charged by the dollar amount of your order, not by location, so the shipping charge on a $25 order is the same whether it’s being sent to New York or just down the street. However, we’re trying something new! Right now it’s being beta tested, which means that we’re working out any bugs or snags that we may encounter, and we cannot guarantee that we’ll be doing this permanently. So what is it you ask?

You can now buy online and pick up in-store!

Here’s how it works:

~ Place your order on GotFabric.com. All items on the website are eligible. Physical store inventory (prints that are in our stores but not online) are not eligible.)

~ When you reach the shopping cart to check out, select “Store Pickup” instead of a shipping option. (NOTE: It’s going to list the address for the Hilo store automatically. At this time, this cannot be changed, which is why the next step is important.) There should be no charge for this option.

~ After you have placed your order and paid through PayPal (either with a credit card or through your PayPal account), please e-mail info@gotfabric.comwithin 24 hours letting us know that you have selected in-store pick up, your order number (you will be receiving a confirmation with your order number after the order has been placed), and which store you would like to pick up at. (If someone else will be picking up your order for you, please note this in your e-mail as well.) You can choose any of our Discount Fabric Warehouse locations! If we do not hear from you within 24-hours, we will send one e-mail asking for confirmation on where the order will be picked up. Otherwise, we will send the order to the DFW location nearest to your shipping address. If it is not an address within reasonable distance of any of our DFW locations, you will be invoiced for shipping charges to your home.

~ Once we’ve received your order, we will process it and ship your order to your selected DFW location. You will receive an e-mail when your order is in transit to the store and a phone call when it is ready for pick-up. (Please note that for this testing period, the number of times we ship to each store will depend on volume. It may take up to a week for your order to arrive at your selected store.)

~ When your order is available, swing by your DFW store to pick it up!

Unfortunately, there are also some not-so-amazing things that we need to let you know about as well:

~ E-Wards and all current in-store promotions are not applicable on GotFabric. The VIC program is not transferrable from in-store to online and your purchase will not accrue any points.

~ You can only order what is currently on our website. The inventory on the website is quite a bit smaller than the inventory in store, but we often carry prints that are no longer available in-store.

~ Yes, you have to pay online. You cannot place an order to be paid for at pick up.

We have a new blog post coming at you from Mary at the Kona store! This fun project is perfect for the upcoming Easter weekend! Learn how to use pieces of silk to color your Easter eggs!

Have you ever tried ice-dyeing? It’s a wonderful new way to get interesting colors, patterns, and designs onto fabric. If you give it a shot, we’d love to see pictures and hear about your experience! Send us an e-mail at fabricdfw@gotfabric.com or tag us on Instagram or Facebook!

Remember the last time you got a new dress? It didn’t matter if it was fancy or simple. All that mattered was the way it made you feel when you put it on. Pretty, feminine, and, dare we say, girly. But there are many girls of all ages around the world that may never have that experience. Many who will only receive hand me downs from older siblings or maybe too-large or battered clothing. Girls who may never know what it feels to get a new dress.

Dress A Girl Around the World looks to change that. They believe that every girl should have at least one new dress in their lifetime and to pass on the message that they are worthy of respect. Since 2008, Dress A Girl Around the World has distributed over 500,000 handmade dresses to girls in 82 countries, including communities in the United States. Thousands of girls in need and at risk of human traffickers or sexual predators have been empowered by the fact that someone out there thinks they are worth giving a new dress to.

Discount Fabric Warehouse wants to be a part of that. We are working with the East and West Hawaii Ambassadors for Dress A Girl Around the World to collect completed handmade dresses that will be distributed by DAG to girls around the world.

How can you help? By creating a simple sundress for donation. Instructions, as well as tips, tricks, and guidelines, on how to make a dress can be found on the Dress A Girl website. While they appreciate any donation that comes through, there are guidelines that they would like dresses to follow so that they are appropriate for girls all over the world as well as last a long time.

Drop off your completed dress at any of our Discount Fabric Warehouse locations. They’ll be asking for your name and either a phone number or e-mail where you can be contacted. A Dress A Girl Around the World label will be added to the dresses before they are sent to the national headquarters for distribution.

Unable to donate a dress? There are other ways for you to contribute!

For those at any Discount Fabric Warehouse location, you can also give a monetary donation. We will add your donation to a gift card which our local Dress A Girl ambassadors can use towards purchasing fabric, bias tape, and other materials needed to make additional dresses. Your name and mailing address will be requested so that they can send you a letter thanking you for your tax-deductible donation.

Our Hilo and Kona stores are also collecting donations of fabric. We follow Dress A Girl Around the World guidelines when accepting fabric donations, which limit donations to the following:

100% Cotton or Poly/Cotton fabrics (preferably with more cotton than polyester)

No white or thin fabrics (such as gingham) – You can check the fabric to see if it’s appropriate by holding it up to a light and seeing if you are able to clearly see the light through the fabric. Many of the girls receiving dresses have darker skin.

As of the end of November 2017, the group of sewist who typically meet on Sundays in the Discount Fabric Warehouse – Hilo classroom will no longer be meeting for the forseeable future.

Dress kits will still be available for pick up at the Hilo store (if available) and you are also able to drop off completed dresses. Monetary and fabric donations, as well as dress kit donations are welcome.

There are two groups of wonderful folks who meet on the Kona/Waikoloa side of the island to put together kits for Dress A Girl Around the World dresses or sew them on the spot for donation!

Kona meets at the Living Stones Church on Ali’i Drive on Mondays from 1:00-4:00.

Waikoloa meets at the Waikoloa Community Room on Wednesdays from 11:30-3:30.

Not able to make it to the meetings, but would like to contribute anyway? Donations are always welcome! DFW gift cards and suitable materials to make the dresses can be dropped off at Discount Fabric Warehouse or by contacting Dress A Girl!

If you have any questions regarding Dress A Girl Around the World, how to donate, or anything else related to our donation drive, please feel free to e-mail us at fabricdfw@gotfabric.com or visit the Dress A Girl Around the World website. Thank you for your help in allowing us to give back to our global community!

Visit our Blog to learn how to ice-dye fabric! Mary from the Kona store will take you step by step through the process and give you some insight about her experience ice-dyeing the fabric she used to make this beautiful top!

Have you ever tried ice-dyeing? It’s a wonderful new way to get interesting colors, patterns, and designs onto fabric. If you give it a shot, we’d love to see pictures and hear about your experience! Send us an e-mail at fabricdfw@gotfabric.com or tag us on Instagram or Facebook!